Wal-Mart Succeeds in Court Over Discrimination Lawsuit

The Supreme Court has overturned a massive sex discrimination lawsuit filed against Wal-Mart on behalf of hundreds of female employees. The justices explained their decision, claiming that the lawsuit could not proceed as a class action presented in the current form. Their decision was backed by claims that said there were too many women in too many jobs at Wal-Mart to present just one lawsuit. Each woman will have to go about filing her lawsuit personally.

Wal-Mart could have been facing billions of dollars in damages if the lawsuit involving 1.6 million women prevailed in court. Wal-Mart claimed that being forced to defend the treatment of female employees regardless of the jobs they hold or where they work is unfair.

The court supported this statement and ruled in Wal-Mart’s favor. The lawsuit did bring about some of Wal-Mart’s issues such as women are underrepresented among managers. Women at Wal-Mart hold just 14 percent of store manager positions, while 80 percent of the women who work at Wal-Mart get paid by the hour and hold nothing more than supervisory positions. Wal-Mart claims that the women make up two-thirds of all employees, when last examined in 2001. Wal-Mart also released a statement claiming that they prohibit discrimination and that they are handling the issues presented in court.